From Ameachi Prosper (The New Diplomat’s Delta Correspondent)
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare, has re-echoed the Federal Government’s desire to provide the enabling environment and support for youths to pursue their career and meet their aspirations.
Dare who said this during an interactive session with Delta youths at Asaba, the state capital said, “I believe that the Nigerian youth in Lagos, Kano or Delta, their issues are the same, their aspirations are the same. They all have certain dreams, certain career that must be realise within the entity of Nigeria.
He said, “We are working closely with all the 36 states commissioners for youth development, including the nation’s capital, Abuja on the plan for the youths of the country so that whatever is being done at the national level is cascaded down to the states, especially when it comes with opportunities.
“As at now, we have 25 youth focused opportunities ongoing. Most of which started more than a year ago. I implore you to give it a shot by patronising all these programmes, it might not be the money, it might be some kind of training.”
He revealed that even though there is a lot of pessimism about government programmes and also a deficit when it come to trust, which was legitimate, “but sometimes unless you enter a race, you don’t expect to win.”
The Minister also revealed that the federal government was moving away from empowerment to investing in the youths, which was a continental and global paradigm shift.
“We want to change that, even when we train you, we develop what we call training into enterprise. We don’t want to train and send you back into the job market to look for job. We want to train you and place you on the path of entrepreneurship, provide you tools, provide you needed capital and finance so that you can be a self starter and an entrepreneur and a wealth creator.
The minister revealed that the Federal Government had established a Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF), which was like Bank of the Youths, approved on July 22, 2020, with N25 billion capital per year for three years, where the youths can get loan to finance their businesses with very low interest rate as three to five percent.
“We are working on a sustainable model, backed up by legislation so that it becomes a permanent feature for the youth. It will be a ring vent fund, meaning, you can only use it for the purpose design by law.
He said, “Your diplomas, your B.Sc in whatever, is no longer enough to get you a solid job, it doesn’t even empower you to start as a self starter. Even as a lawyer, you have to contend with artificial intelligent and all of that technology coming up.”
